I would buy it, because it is:
- an innovative concept
- smooth yet powerful (the teslar did blow my mind!)
- environmentally friendly (when you buy renewable energy)
- hopefully less maintenace
- a “show off” ;-P

storm: If you buy a Mercedes, what is the cost savings? If you want real cost savings, buy a 10 yr old car. No new car offers cost savings. Sales tax, property tax, insurance cost and a host of other costs means that to save money you would never buy a new car. You buy a particular car because that is the one you want. There are many cars that sell for $40-50,000. If you want one of them more than a Volt, buy one of them. The last car I bought new was in 1963. I want a Volt. I have no illusions that it will save money. Nor will any other new car. Get over it. Buy a Lexus or an Escalade if you think they offer more value for your dollar. The feature I want is electric drive with an onboard range extender. What features are you willing to pay for?Anybody know the trailer towing capacity of the Volt?  (Quote)

The bottom line is that the Volt is all about fuel EFFICIENCY… therefore the MPG is important to consumers, no matter what the price is. It’s kinda like buying a Mercedes without knowing what luxury features it has.

GM witholding the information until it blows up in their face.

Cut it short – if you don’t think to use the Volt in the absolute majority of cases purely electrically charged/driven, don’t buy it!!! (and don’t waste your time with academic discussions!).

I believe in Europe the official CO2 Emissions/mile of electric cars (f(MPG)!!) will be calculated on the basis:
Consumption (kWh) on pure electric drive (for as long as the battery will take you! … Measured at the socket i.e.: including losses while charging)
plus
Consumption on additional 25km (15,53 miles) in range extender mode (“to find the next plug-in”).
The Emissions in CO2/miles will be the average over the sum of miles achieved.

Does this spark the academic hearts of a few!?

Good luck!

TAL

It is a bit of an irony that people are tying to defend the anticipated poor CS mpg by presuming that ICE use will be a rare occurrence; but in doing so, they minimize the value of putting the two together in the first place.